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Byd E6

Who needs Long Beach when you have Hangzhou? BYD could happily be asking itself that question after the China city agreed to purchase 2,000 battery-electric buses and 1,000 electric e6 taxis from the China-based vehicle maker. BYD calls the purchase "record-setting" and says it will deliver half of the order of both the buses and the taxis by the end of the year. Hangzhou is located about 110 miles southwest of Shanghai and is home to about 2.5 million people. It's the largest city in Zhejiang P

Remember back in 2008 when BYD (Build Your Dreams) first displayed its fuel saving hybrid at the Detroit Auto Show and later announced plans to begin selling in the US in 2010? A quick glance at any street in the country will provide ample evidence that the Chinese automaker has failed to smother our roadways with low-cost electric and hybrid vehicles. Ditto its buses.

We've heard the comment, "the Tesla Model S is a rich man's toy" before. Usually it comes from a Cranky McCrankster-type of character in the Comments beneath posts about the all-electric automobile. Not everyone sees the utility of an expensive car that can seat up to seven, run with Corvettes and only gets 265 miles on a charge. We get that, sort of, and everyone's entitled to their opinion. It's a bit odd, though, hearing the remark fall from the lips of Wang Chuanfu, however.

Splat! That's the sound that the agreement that London taxi company Green Tomato Cars had with Chinese electric-vehicle maker BYD made as it hit the proverbial pavement recently. The deal has fallen through, but no reason was given, according to the UK's Telegraph.

Taiwan may be small in the grand scheme of things - the island off of China's southeastern coast is slightly larger than Maryland - but it's a big deal for BYD and sales of that automaker's e6 electric vehicle. BYD Taiwan, a partnership between BYD Hong Kong and Taiwan Solar Energy Co., has reached an agreement in which 1,500 of the EVs will be ordered for that country's taxi service, Focus Taiwan reports. Deliveries will start early next year for the e6 electric crossover, which seats five. The

It looks like those long curious to ride in a BYD battery-electric car in the US will only be able to do so from the back of a cab. The China-based company, which has for years been trumpeting a potential entry into the US light-vehicle market with the all-electric e6 sedan, will only sell the EV here to fleet buyers, Green Car Reports says. That means no private EV sales to Americans, at least for now.

Yes, we know that so many gasoline-powered vehicles catch fire every day that only the most local of news reports bother to report on what happened nearby. Still, electric vehicles come under a magnified lens, which is why reports of a BYD E6 taxi catching fire in Shenzhen, China caught our eye.

The BYD E6 is a football. No, not a political one like the Chevy Volt. Rather, it is the pigskin that the cartoon character Lucy would hold in place, but then snatch away when Charlie Brown's ever-hopeful foot was in mid-swing.

BYD has had its struggles in recent times but finally some good news has seen the Chinese battery and auto manufacturer get a nice little spike in its share price. The news? The powers that be in China have signaled they are still serious about pushing the adoption of electric transportation.

The launch of BYD's plug-in vehicles has not gone as planned. The Chinese company's all-electric e6 has been delayed in the U.S. (in part because of a lack of infrastructure, the company says) and the plug-in hybrid F3DM did not sell well at all. In the recent past, profits tumbled and EV production plans were scaled back.

It's coming in 2010. Scratch that. How about 2011? Oh shucks, that's impossible, too. Let's shoot for 2012. BYD Auto constantly alters the U.S. launch date of the electric e6 crossover. But this latest bit of info should relieve us of reporting further delays.

Chinese automaker BYD, backed by U.S. billionaire Warren Buffett, may be headed down a rocky road. According to Daily Finance, BYD's troubles aren't limited to profits tumbling. In fact, Daily Finance hints that BYD will need to step up its game to keep Buffet from bailing out entirely.

Chinese automaker BYD, backed by U.S. billionaire Warren Buffett, says its net profit for the first quarter of 2011 fell 84.4 percent year-on-year. In a filing last Wednesday, BYD reported its 2011 Q1 net profit of 266.74 million yuan ($41.2 million U.S. at the current exchange rate), compared to 1.70 billion yuan ($263 million U.S.) for the first quarter of 2010.